Return of the Black Shorts
The above picture shows fascist thug and career criminal Daniel Thomas (a.k.a. Danny Tommo) leading a “protest” of uniformed knuckleheads (those on the right of the picture, in short trousers) outside the Daily Mail offices in London.
Fans of P.G. Wodehouse will recall Roderick Spode, the 7th Earl of Sidcup, who leads a fascist group called the “Saviours of Britain” also known as the Black Shorts. He is of course a parody of Oswald Mosley and his group a parody of Mosley’s Black Shirts (aka the British Union of Fascists).
Here’s a relevant quotation from The Code of the Woosters (published in 1938):
The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you’re someone. You hear them shouting “Heil, Spode!” and you imagine it is the Voice of the People.
How prescient was that?
Incidentally, fans of historical trivia might be interested to know that the grandson of Oswald Mosley (founder of the British Union of Fascists) and Diane Mitford (a friend of Adolf Hitler, who married Oswald Mosley at the home of Joseph Goebbels) is Louis Mosley, CEO of Palantir UK.
Coincidentally, Nigel Farage went to the same school as P.G. Wodehouse, Dulwich College.
September 10, 2026 at 10:44 pm
@telescoper.blog
Always boosting a Wodehouse reference. Also the great Fry and Laurie TV series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYWRu8uT8z8
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September 11, 2026 at 1:08 pm
Do they know about Eulalie?
September 11, 2026 at 1:23 pm
Perhaps they’re weaing fancy knickers under their shorts…
September 17, 2026 at 9:41 am
Trying to post a further comment but WordPress doesn’t like it. Let’s see how this one fares…
September 17, 2026 at 9:42 am
That went better! I’ll now try my censored comment, within a few minutes.
September 17, 2026 at 9:43 am
Peaky Blinders had Mosley’s number. But his political parties never won a parliamentary election in any constituency.
September 17, 2026 at 9:59 am
You just reminded me how good Sam Claflin was as Mosley in Peaky Blinders…
September 17, 2026 at 9:44 am
The real danger from the far right in that era was King Edward VIII. Mercifully he got bumped off the throne for other reasons.